Confidentiality

Confidentiality is a fundamental principle of the Violence Prevention Hotline and so is transparency. This statement will introduce you to what information we collect from you, how we protect your information, and how we use and share that information. You do not have to share any personal information with the Violence Prevention Hotline about who you are or where you are to receive support.

Please note that confidential and anonymous are not the same. During your contact with the Violence Prevention Hotline, you may voluntarily share information about yourself that could identify you and that information may be documented in notes about your conversation.

Information We Collect

The vast majority of the information that we collect about you is what you tell us, whether that is through a phone conversation, a series of text messages, or a chat session. When you are connected to a counselor, that person will take notes on the conversation. This means that any information you share in a conversation may be documented, along with the counselor’s impressions and the steps they took to help you. We will typically receive the phone number you call or text from or the IP address of the device you are using for a chat session. This does not mean that we know where you are. An IP address does not represent where you are located and the Violence Prevention Hotline does not receive pinpoint location information associated with each call.

How We Use and Share this Information

We primarily use the information in our system at the aggregate level for overall reporting and evaluation. We may use identifiable information for quality improvement or when we need to communicate with emergency services. Because the Violence Prevention Hotline is a network of state-run and local-run crisis centers, the Violence Prevention Hotline network  has requirements in our agreements that require states and centers to adhere to federal and state laws and the Violence Prevention Hotline privacy expectations.

The Violence Prevention Hotline will not share identifiable information about callers/chatters/texters outside of the Violence Prevention Hotline without documented verbal or written consent from the person seeking help, except in the rare cases where there is imminent risk of harm to the person or to someone else, or where providing the information is otherwise required by law. Some contact centers share information to support coordination of care or Medicaid or insurance payment unless you specifically request this not be shared.

If the Violence Prevention Hotline contact center receives a valid warrant from law enforcement or a court order, our expectation is that everyone involved in theViolence Prevention Hotline will follow the law.

How We Protect this Information

The data platform that Violence Prevention Hotline makes available to each contact center treats all communications as highly sensitive personal information and is secured according to the HIPAA Security Rule. Violence Prevention Hotline sets baseline privacy and security standards for network contact centers through a network agreement. All contact centers are independent organizations that decide their own privacy and security policies.

Confidentiality is a fundamental principle of the Violence Prevention Hotline and so is transparency. This statement will introduce you to what information we collect from you, how we protect your information, and how we use and share that information. You do not have to share any personal information with the Violence Prevention Hotline about who you are or where you are to receive support.

Please note that confidential and anonymous are not the same. During your contact with the Violence Prevention Hotline, you may voluntarily share information about yourself that could identify you and that information may be documented in notes about your conversation.